The Icon Bar: News and features: Module Database Launched
Posted by John Hoare on 12:26, 3/4/2003
| RISC OS
Now, this is a good bit of fun. Peter Howkins has officially launched the RISC OS, Arthur and NCOS Module Database - a near complete database of all modules. Not only that, but it's extremely easy to query information: you can list the modules contained in a version of the OS, see the differences between two OS versions, or even see the complete history of a module. Peter is extremely keen for people to help him complete the database, so if you think you can help him (even if it's just an idea for the site), details for contributing are also on the front page. I could spend hours there, although I'm not sure quite what that says about me.
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Module Database Launched |
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(12:56 3/4/2003) andypoole (13:36 3/4/2003) flibble (13:38 3/4/2003) andypoole (13:38 3/4/2003) The Naked Scientolog (10:39 4/4/2003) Scientological fun (10:43 4/4/2003) rich (12:02 4/4/2003) M (12:36 4/4/2003) andrew (13:32 4/4/2003) Matthew (15:16 4/4/2003) gerph (23:50 4/4/2003) monkeyson2 (13:12 5/4/2003) andrew (12:10 7/4/2003)
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flibble |
Message #92012, posted at 12:56, 3/4/2003 |
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Looking for a7000+ owners with RISC OS 3.71, that'd fill an interesting hole. Peter |
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Andrew Poole |
Message #92013, posted by andypoole at 13:36, 3/4/2003, in reply to message #92012 |
Posts: 5558
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*slap* Thats what I sent you :p |
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flibble |
Message #92014, posted at 13:38, 3/4/2003, in reply to message #92013 |
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good point, me dim |
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Andrew Poole |
Message #92015, posted by andypoole at 13:38, 3/4/2003, in reply to message #92014 |
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:p |
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The Naked Scientolog |
Message #92016, posted at 10:39, 4/4/2003, in reply to message #92015 |
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Has this any practical use or just a historical record? |
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Scientological fun |
Message #92017, posted at 10:43, 4/4/2003, in reply to message #92016 |
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To answer my own question - this is very useful for checking things like which version of BASIC you have and if it's changed. Why isn't BASIC VI listed for RISC OS 4 or 3.1 though? I thought BASIC VI came on disc at least for 3.1. |
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Richard Goodwin |
Message #92018, posted by rich at 12:02, 4/4/2003, in reply to message #92017 |
Dictator for life
Posts: 6828
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If it's supplied on disc, it's not part of the OS is it? That is, if you switch the machine on, with no boot sequence, and list the modules, it's not going to come up just like many other disc-based modules. |
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M |
Message #92019, posted at 12:36, 4/4/2003, in reply to message #92018 |
Unregistered user
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But I would think viewing the history of a module would be listing that module's entire history, not just those versions of it included in a particular ROM? Is it a complete database of all modules, or a complete database of all ROM modules? |
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Andrew |
Message #92020, posted by andrew at 13:32, 4/4/2003, in reply to message #92019 |
Handbag Boi
Posts: 3439
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BasicVI is not present on disc though with RISC OS 4 as far as I know. It wasn't on the RO4 machine I bought from Castle a few years back. |
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Matthew Somerville |
Message #92021, posted by Matthew at 15:16, 4/4/2003, in reply to message #92020 |
Posts: 520
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It's certainly present on my RiscStation; can't tell you if I put it there or if it was there when I bought it, though. |
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gerph |
Message #92022, posted at 23:50, 4/4/2003, in reply to message #92021 |
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rich> The 'OS', as you phrase it, is more than just a ROM image, and has been for quite a period (certainly since RO3.5, and earlier if you start including components such as softloaded C libraries, etc). andrew> BASIC VI, aka BASIC64 is present as System:Modules.BASIC64 on all RO4 systems (and back through to... well, I don't know when, but that's what the modules database should tell you :-) ) As for the divide between OS and ROM; I'd suggest that if the module is part of the products default installation, then it's part of the OS. Take, for example, the PatchApp module (Boot:Utils.PatchApp on Select - I don't have a RO4 boot sequence to check the location but I would imagine it would be the same), aka AppPatcher. This lives on disc, but is should be considered part of the OS because it provides a vital function for the running of the system. Should VProtect fall into that category too ? Pass; it's not vital to the running of the machine, but is supplied alongside PatchApp and it's actually a product of external entity that's just being supplied with the OS - you might consider ABClibrary similarly external from the OS itself. It really depends on what the maintainer of the datebase wishes to declare as what exactly the components are that comprise at 'Product' (in its parlance). Modules, remember, are only one part of the whole OS - the boot sequence includes many different components whose versions can be identified readily (and some which cannot be so readily identified). Consider, if you have Select, the content of the Boot:Manifest file which describes the versions of components of the Boot sequence. Consider, as a subset of those, the output from *Help Library which describes library command versions. What am I saying ? Oh, I don't know... Probably just that there is a degree of difference between OS, ROM and Product, and where you draw the line is really a matter of opinion - and in the case of this site, a matter for the maintainer of the site to decide. |
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Phil Mellor |
Message #92023, posted by monkeyson2 at 13:12, 5/4/2003, in reply to message #92022 |
Please don't let them make me be a monkey butler
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Although it would be a lot of work, it would be great to have the SWIs, *commands and help text from each module in the database - perhaps with links to the online StrongHelp documentation. |
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Andrew |
Message #92024, posted by andrew at 12:10, 7/4/2003, in reply to message #92023 |
Handbag Boi
Posts: 3439
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Thanks Gerph. |
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The Icon Bar: News and features: Module Database Launched |